The gnome-session program starts up the GNOME desktop environment. This command is typically executed by your login manager (either gdm,
xdm, or from your X startup scripts). It will load either your saved session, or it will provide a default session for the user as defined
by the system administrator (or the default GNOME installation on your system).
The default session is defined in gnome.session, a .desktop-like file that is looked for in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnome-session/sessions,
$XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/gnome-session/sessions and $XDG_DATA_DIRS/gnome-session/sessions.
When saving a session, gnome-session saves the currently running applications in the $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnome-session/saved-session direc-
tory.
gnome-session is an X11R6 session manager. It can manage GNOME applications as well as any X11R6 SM compliant application.

OPTIONS

The following options are supported:
--autostart=DIR
Start all applications defined in DIR, instead of starting the applications defined in gnome.session, or via the --session option.
Multiple --autostart options can be passed.
--session=SESSION
Use the applications defined in SESSION.session. If not specified, gnome.session will be used.
--failsafe
Run in fail-safe mode. User-specified applications will not be started.
--debug
Enable debugging code.
--whale
Show the fail whale in a dialog for debugging it.

SESSION DEFINITION

Sessions are defined in .session files, that are using a .desktop-like format, with the following keys in the GNOME Session group:
Name Name of the session. This can be localized.
RequiredComponents
List of component identifiers (desktop files) that are required by the session. The required components will always run in the ses-
sion.
Here is an example of a session definition:
[GNOME Session]
Name=GNOME
RequiredComponents=gnome-shell;gnome-settings-daemon;
The .session files are looked for in $XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnome-session/sessions, $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/gnome-session/sessions and
$XDG_DATA_DIRS/gnome-session/sessions.

ENVIRONMENT

gnome-session sets several environment variables for the use of its child processes:
SESSION_MANAGER
This variable is used by session-manager aware clients to contact gnome-session.
DISPLAY
This variable is set to the X display being used by gnome-session. Note that if the --display option is used this might be different
from the setting of the environment variable when gnome-session is invoked.

FILES

$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/config/autostart $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/config/autostart /usr/share/gnome/autostart
The applications defined in those directories will be started on login. gnome-session-properties(1) can be used to easily configure
them.
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnome-session/sessions $XDG_CONFIG_DIRS/gnome-session/sessions $XDG_DATA_DIRS/gnome-session/sessions
These directories contain the .session files that can be used with the --session option.
$XDG_CONFIG_HOME/gnome-session/saved-session
This directory contains the list of applications of the saved session.

BUGS

If you find bugs in the gnome-session program, please report these on https://bugzilla.gnome.org.